SAN ANTONIO -- J. David Bamberger got what he wanted 40 years ago when he bought a plot of land in Blanco County that he called the worst ranch in the Hill Country.

Bamberger purchased the land to turn what some people called a pipe dream into a reality.

With enthusiasm, hard work and determination, Bamberger turned the scrappy, scarred land into a sponge of sorts, a sieve into the Edwards Aquifer.

Through various contraptions, Bamberger captures rainwater to be reused instead of allowing it to run off.

"Our goal here was to maximize rainfall by holding it onto the ranch long enough to percolate it as opposed to running off," Bamberger said. "It doesn't come out of a spigot. It comes out of the clouds, and how the rancher out here in the country manages his land determines how well the Edwards Aquifer holds up."

Bamberger will be rewarded for his conservation efforts Wednesday by being awarded the Leopold Conservation Award for Texas.

Water conservation is not the only project Bamberger has going on at his ranch. You will find a man-made bat cave that helps control insects and endangered antelope from Senegal and Gambia.